In Thursday’s trading on the Jamaica Stock Exchange the three Lasco companies dominated trading accounting 9,346,942 or 86 percent of the volume traded and nearly 37 percent of the value.
Elsewhere the prices of 6 stocks rose and 11 declined as 27 securities changed hands, resulting in 10,814,964 shares trading, valued at $25,066,008. Three stocks closed at new 52 weeks low, at the end of trading.
Main Market| The JSE Market Index rose by 165.72 points to 70,113.79 and the JSE All Jamaican Composite index moved up 185.31 points to close at 77,108.16.
Gains| Stocks recording gains at the end of trading in the main market, are Caribbean Cement with 10,000 shares, to close with a gain of 10 cents at $2.50, Gleaner with 3,000 units changing hands, gained 2 cents to close $1.12, Grace Kennedy with 4,575 shares, gained 5 cents to close at $56.05, Sagicor Real Estate Fund traded 7,800 units, to close 30 cents up at $6.35 and Scotia Group exchanged 99,000 shares, to close up 20 cents at $18.70.
Firm| The stocks in the main market to close without a price change, are Berger Paints 3,799 shares to close at $1.62, Jamaica Broilers 2,200 units traded, to close at $4.57, Jamaica Money Market Brokers with 112,700 shares closed at $6.95, Jamaica Producers, with 309 shares closed at $17.51 and Sagicor Group 67,700 units closed at $9.
Declines| The number of stocks that declined in the main market, are Cable & Wireless with only 6,494 units, closed at 26 cents with a 3 cents decline, Carreras lost 5 cents in trading 188,550 shares to close at $33.85, Desnoes & Geddes with 250,000 units closed with a decline of 25 cents, to end at $4, a new 52 weeks low, National Commercial Bank exchanged 45,564 shares and closed with a one cent loss at $18, Radio Jamaica traded 2,550 units in losing 6 cents, to end at $1.22, Scotia Investments traded at a new 52 weeks low of $21 as 9,310 shares were exchanged, with a 10 cents decline and Supreme Ventures traded only 680 shares in losing 2 cents off the price, to close at $1.95.
Preference| Jamaica Money Market Brokers (JMMB) 8.50% preference share traded 57,000 units and closed at $3.50 and the JMMB 8.75% preference share traded 16,695 units, to lose 2 cents and closed at $2.99.
Junior Market| The JSE Junior Market Index declined by 14.07 points to close at 649.27 as 7 stocks traded with one advancing and 4 declining.
Gains| Dolphin Cove was the sole stock, recording a gain at the end of trading in the junior market, it traded 304,625 shares and climbed 10 cents to $8.40.
Firm Trades| The actives stocks in the junior market that closed at the same price as the day before are, Caribbean Producers with 75,000 units to close at $2.50 and Lasco Financial 1,446,904 units to close at $1.
Declines| Stocks declining in the junior market at the end of trading, are Access Financial with 34,680 shares at $8.97, down a cent $1.03, General Accident 3,000 units traded with decline of 4 cents to close $1.46, Lasco Distributors had 762,355 shares changing hands and declined by a cent to $1.19 and its sister company, Lasco Manufacturing with a large volume of 7,137,683 shares, closed at a new 52 weeks low of 90 cents, after falling 10 cents.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator had 9 stocks with bids higher than their last selling prices and 6 stocks with offers that were lower.
Lasco companies dominant in JSE trades
Will Tessanne boost RJR fortunes?
Important RJR update | RJR earnings per share for the six months improved to 4 cents compared with a loss of 6 cents in 2012. IC Insider has revised its forecast of earnings and is now forecasting 20 cents per share for the full year ending March 2013 and around 30 cents for 2014, which suggest that the price of the stock has room for growth from the current level of $1.34. It is quite possible that the group could be a big beneficiary of the popularity of Tessanne Chin’s success on the NBC The Voice with RE TV’s broadcast of the program, especially if Chin goes much further in the competition.
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RJR recently released results for the six months to September, but they have the exclusive rights to the telecast of the NBC The Voice program that features Tessanne Chin and is being telecast locally on RETV. Could she give the stalled bottom line a real kick in the butt? The next quarterly figures will shed some light on that.
The economic environment has not been kind for many in the communication sector. We have Cable & Wireless losing market share from high legacy cost, complacency and poor customer service plunging the operations in to huge losses stretching back for a number of years, then there is the staid and age-old Gleaner Company whose main business has not seen a profit for some time as both the state of the local and global economies has conspired against it, pushing up cost without a commensurate level of income.
Then there is RJR who raised capital to invest in a newspaper only to write-off all of it, plus their own old-fashioned management practises in some areas that has seen the once prominent and dominant AM radio loose its dominant market share. They are now fighting amongst the rest try to recoup market share from the new leader, Irie Radio.
Interestingly, all three of these companies were once very dominant in their respective markets but not so any longer. What went wrong and where will they be heading?
The un-audited results showed that RJR recording a profit in the 2nd quarter ended September, 2013 of $13 million and marginally more for the six month a profit of $14.6 million, which is a major turnaround from a loss of $23 million in the 2012 six month period and a small profit of $2.3 million in the 2012 September quarter.
Revenues | Operating revenues were down $21 million for the September quarter to $458 million but was flat for the six months at $899 million. Other Income showed a 63 percent increase for the six months to $52 million and 19 percent increase for the quarter to reach $17.5 million, resulting management said, “from new transmitter site rental income.”
The 2nd quarter performance was driven by a $29 million or 5.9 percent reduction in expenses for the comparative period in 2012 moving from $489 million down to $460 million.
Direct expenses fell $14 million to $212 million for the quarter and but was up $30 million for the six months; selling expenses were marginally down $2.6 million for the quarter and $9 million for the six months while administration expenses fell by $18 million to $84 million and by $21 million for the six month period to reach $183 million. Finance costs rose from $3 million in the six months to $11 million.
Earnings per share | RJR earnings per share for the six months improved to 4 cents compared to a loss of 6 cents in 2012, IC Insider is forecasting 13 cents for the full year ending March 2013 and around 20 cents for 2014, which suggests that the current price of the stock is fully valued at $1.30. It is quite possible that the Group could be a big beneficiary of the popularity of Tessanne Chin’s success on the NBC The Voice and could be a big boost for RETV. Management has also mentioned a new project that should be on stream before the end of the fiscal year but no details have been given.
At the end of September, there was $84 million invested in FIFA rights to broadcast and televise World Cup matches in Jamaica; $446 million of receivables or nearly one quarter’s revenues; cash funds of $230 million and payables of $223 million. Shareholders’ equity stood at $1.2 billion and long term loans increased by $226 million.
Related posts | Radio Jamaica’s sharp turn |C&W: Less jobs, more capital spend | Gleaner profits face major challenges
Photo courtesy www.nbc.com/the-voice/
TVJ Chairman resigns
Radio Jamaica Limited (RJR) has advised that Milton Samuda, Attorney at law, has resigned from the Board of Directors of the company effective September 11, 2013. Samuda who was also chairman of the RJR subsidiary, Television Jamaica (TVJ) has served on the RJR board for seventeen years. As the head of the powerful Chamber of Commerce for a number of years, Samuda would have been the likely candidate to take over as Chairman for the RJR Group when the current Chairman Lester Spalding steps down.
The resignation comes in light of the controversy relating to a press interview which involved his clients, world-renown Asafa Powell and Sherone Simpson. Samuda, who reportedly sat in as part of the interview, is alleged to have taken the journalist’s tapes which were later edited.
In the release issued by the company following an investigation into the matter, “There were corporate governance issues and policy breaches which the chairman of TVJ accepts.”
Radio Jamaica’s sharp turn
Radio Jamaica made a sharp about turn in profitability in the June quarter reversing a loss of $25 million in 2012 to a small profit of $1.6 million. The change came about as revenues increased by 7.3 percent to $440 million. The company says the change in revenue is due to increased advertising income, flowing from the website’s continuous growth in visitors and increased portfolio of local production in television which contributed favourably to higher income and improvement in response to the sales and marketing.
Also helping the changed bottom line was a doubling of other income from $17.7 million to $34.65 million but it is cost cutting that really did the trick. Selling expenses was cut to $70 million from $76.4 million in 2012, administrative expenses was reduced from $103.7 million down to $98.5 million and other operating expenses which came in at $73.4 million was down from $87 million. RJR negotiated a number of contracts but bringing the cable channel under the same roof as the main studios help cut costs as well. Interest cost was one expense that climbed as loans were taken on to help fund the acquisition the FIFA franchise for matches between 2013 and 2022. This amount climbed from $1.2 million to $5.4 million.
RJR would have suffered revenue decline from the closure of Claro mobile network resulting in less completion in the market as well as the general economic downturn, which started in late 2008. Data to date indicate that the economy is still declining at least up to the first six months of this year. Forecast going forward does not reflect any signs of much economic growth.
The turnaround in profits is welcomed news for investors who have seen profits decline from 2010 when it peaked at $222 million ending with a big loss for the year ended March 2013. Even with the return to profits, the company is not fully out of the woods as the economy is still fragile and things could get more difficult before they get better. In such an environment, the strength of the finances take on even more import.
IC Insider forecast is for the 2013/14 year to show profits of $63 million after tax or earnings per share of 18 cents which would be a big improvement over the $36 million loss reported last fiscal year ending March 2013.
Loan funding is now at $193 million and cash funds at $252 million and receivables is $439 million versus payables of $224 million.
Related posts | RJR’s $106M 4th quarter loss
RJR’s $106M 4th quarter loss
Things are not good for the media houses these days as economic pressure and the withdrawal of Claro mobile operations from the Jamaican market coupled with a soft economy has cut revenues for this sector. In a tough economy, RJR group suffered a pretax loss of $106 million in the quarter ending in March after writing off $35 million for impairment of the investment in Reggae TV and JNN. This result is a major swing from the similar quarter of 2012 when a profit of $15.6 million was made. Result after tax for the period came out at a loss of $51 million versus a profit of $5.6 million in 2012.
A 5 percent fall in revenue to $446 million from $470 million in the 2012 quarter was one of the major contributors to that big loss in the quarter.
Annual Loss | For the year to March, the loss before taxation came out at $79.5 million and $36.4 after tax, compared to a pretax profit of $146.5 million in 2012 and a net of $87.4 million after taxation of $59 million. The company reported revenues of $1.866 billion for the year, in 2012 revenues were $1.937 billion a decline of 3.7 percent.
Bad debt provision increased from $10.7 million to $30.5 million and special events cost amounted to $186.8 million compared to $90.3 million in the prior year.
While amounts in receivables were kept relatively constant with the previous year’s figures, payables at the end of March climbed to $124 million versus $44 million and the company borrowed $201.5 million. Fixed and intangible assets were purchased amounting to $192 million of which FIFA world cup rights accounts for a large portion.
Decline | The company has suffered a series of set backs over the years. One that is most noticeable is the fall in return on equity from 21 percent in 2000 and 19.7 percent in 2010 to 10.3 percent in 2011, 6.4 percent in 2012 and now a negative return in 2013. Even adjusting for the one-off cost items that are in the 2013 fiscal year, profit would still be inadequate to beat the return on equity of 2012.
RJR recovered from a stunning loss of $129 million in 2009 to record a profit of $222 million in 2010, so it could recover again. However, there are some differences. In 2010, revenues rose by nearly 21 percent on top of a 7 percent in the two previous years. This time around revenues are down in a soft market for advertising as revenues were flat in 2011, declined in 2012 and again in 2013. This is not a market where revenues can be easily raised to dramatically turn around profits. On the positive side, there are some costs in 2013 that should not recur in 2014. Depreciation charge is $109 million, which is not a cash item, so even if it were to continue to make a small loss it can continue to operate for a long time until it recovers as cash flow can be positive.
FIFA rights | The company paid $83.55 million for the exclusive right to transmit FIFA football matches in Jamaica between 2015 to 2022 which means that it will be some time before this investment pays off.
The company’s stock trades at $1.37 and it is difficult to see how this stock will be able to justify a higher price with these results, but more importantly, how will the company grow revenues or cut cost to restore reasonable profitability.
